Most women having abortions are not warned of the risk of premature birth and damage to babies in subsequent pregnancies.

Nearly a third of "very-pre-term" US births - that is, pre-term births before 32 weeks' gestation - are due to the mother having had a prior abortion, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine.1

This information, combined with previous research on the relation between low birth-weight children and cerebral palsy (CP), indicates an estimated 1,096 children suffering from CP because of their mother's prior abortion. The study, based on 2002 data, examines 4,021,726 births, 486,629 pre-term babies and 72,751 very-pre-term babies.

The study's authors are Dr Byron Calhoun, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at West Virginia University, Dr Elizabeth Shadigian, professor of obstetrics and gynaecology at the University of Michigan, and Brent Rooney, research director of the Reduce Preterm Risk Coalition, in Vancouver, Canada. They have concluded that prior induced abortion is a significant risk factor in very pre-term births and cerebral palsy.

Immutable risk factor

The research backs up previous findings, published in 2006 by Dr Richard E. Behrman of Stanford University's Institute of Medicine, that named "prior first trimester induced abortion" as an "immutable medical risk factor associated with pre-term birth".2

In 2002 there were 58,717 US newborn with a birth weight under 1,500 grams (3 lbs. 5 oz), according to a Center for Disease Control (CDC) article by Dr Joyce Martin. Most of these under-1,500 gram babies were delivered very prematurely.

Dr Calhoun cited a 1991 comprehensive study by Dr G. Escobar et al. that found that newborns under 1,500 grams have a 7.7 per cent chance of having cerebral palsy. Using this 7.7 per cent figure, combined with the excess number of babies under 1,500 grams caused by mothers' prior abortions, enabled Dr Calhoun et al. to compute 1,096 excess cases of CP caused by prior induced abortions.

The article further estimated a direct cost to the health care system of abortion-related pre-term babies at US $1.2 billion in 2002. This estimate did not include long-term costs for ongoing, often life-long, medical expenses and lost income that such children will suffer.

In April 2004 Justice Michael Grove of the NSW Supreme Court ruled that a Sydney girl, Kristy Bruce, was born with brain damage as a result of her mother's uterine rupture - a complication from a previous abortion. As a result, the girl's family lost their bid to sue the mother's obstetrician for negligence. Kristy, then 15, has cerebral palsy, is confined to a wheelchair and cannot walk or talk, but has a beautiful smile. Kristy was not premature, but she was deprived of oxygen when her mother's uterus ruptured during labour.

In 2005, a study from France confirmed that abortion increases a woman's risk of delivering future children prematurely; the risk of very pre-term delivery (less than 33 weeks) increases even more dramatically.

After studying data on 1,943 very pre-term births, 276 moderately pre-term babies and 618 full-term controls, Dr Caroline Moreau, an epidemiologist at the Hôpital de Bicêtre in Paris, and her colleagues concluded that women with a history of abortion were 1.5 times more likely to give birth very prematurely (under 33 weeks' gestation), and 1.7 times more likely to have a baby born extremely pre-term (i.e., under 28 weeks' gestation).3

Previous research, also conducted in Paris, revealed that the odds of a woman delivering prematurely increase with the number of abortions in her history, with the likelihood doubled in women who have had two or more abortions. Other research corroborated these findings, indicating that "the risk of pre-term birth increased with the number of abortions," according to a 2004 study.

Dr Moreau's group revealed that the pre-term delivery risk resulted from a tendency for mothers to develop premature rupture of the membranes, pre-term haemorrhaging, and spontaneous pre-term labour of unknown cause.

Most women having abortions are not warned of the risk of premature birth and damage to babies in subsequent pregnancies. An exception is the Texas Department of Health's Women's Right to Know booklet provided to women considering abortion.